Blog post #1: Transforming the public sector into a technology and innovation leader

Submitted by Nuria on Tue, 2016-07-19 12:33

It is a fact that technology in our age is offering countless solutions and infrastructures that could change the way we act and perform activities, and that innovation is lately directly linked with emerging technologies that are applied in various domains and revolutionise them, such as manufacturing, healthcare, consumer services, media, etc.
However, despite the investments performed in the last decade in the field of public sector modernisation and automation, the bitter truth is that “we are not there yet” when it comes to fully exploiting the benefits of ICT for governance towards aiding the public sector to meet the new societal needs that are emerging. Therefore there is an urgent need for better, more efficient, effective and quality delivering public services.

This need will not only transform the public sector itself and cover the needs of public sector employees and policy makers, but it will also cater for citizens and businesses, thus benefiting all stakeholders and opening new innovation directions that will in turn accelerate the EU economy and will improve quality of life, powered by a renovated public sector that will be in the position to play a central and active role in innovation diffusion and technology take-up.

In this context, SONNETS emerges with the aim of renovating the way the public sector operates by suggesting a concrete set of actions (namely, the SONNETS quadruple helix) that will place the public sector in the front line of tackling societal challenges.

SONNETS will provide an innovative methodological framework for public sector organisations and related stakeholders to accelerate their transformation process through the identification, analysis and take-up of emerging technologies that hold the potential to transform and infuse real value to public services.

For the project, a well-balanced European consortium of four (4) partners from industry, academia and research communities was established: Atos Spain (coordinator), the National Technical University of Athens, Fraunhofer INT and Instituto Superiore Mario Boellaoella.